Aesthetic of Time Fragmentation in Contemporary Libyan Women's Narratives: A Critical Analytical Study of Selected Models

Abstract

Narrative time is the "fluid space" in which identity is constructed. In the contemporary Libyan context, time is no longer a tranquil river; it has transformed into shattered mirrors reflecting a crisis-ridden reality. This study aims to investigate the "Aesthetics of Time Fragmentation" in contemporary Libyan women’s narratives as a structural shift embodying the fractures of reality. The research problem lies in monitoring how time evolves from a linear progression into narrative fragments that re-enact the shocks of history and reality. Utilizing a Structural Narrative Approach, the study analyzes temporal paradoxes (analepsis, prolepsis, and frequency) across four selected novels: "Slave Yards" by Najwa Bin Shatwan, "Qassil" by Aisha Ibrahim, "Women of the Wind" by Razan Mughrabi, and "Nusub" by Kawthar Al-Jahmi. In these works, fragmentation is not a mere artistic luxury but an existential necessity and a cry of protest. The Libyan woman writer shatters time to reject the calm "official narrative," choosing instead the time of memory and loss. The study concludes that fragmentation serves as an objective correlative to "Trauma Time," where analepsis dominates to restore lost identity, and dreams interweave with reality to express moments of political explosion. Ultimately, the study finds that the Libyan creator harnessed temporal rupture as a tool to resist oblivion, transforming the "scattered moment" into a textual immortality that rejects marginalization. It offers "lost time" a second chance to recount its broken truth away from the tutelage of official history, making structural fragmentation a means of reshaping a troubled world and building an alternative national memory.